Wednesday, December 13, 2017

You
may have heard or read about a preponderance of fake news
that was being shared on social media outlets recently. The sources of these
erroneous reports and the reasons/motivations to share this information is of
less interest to me than how and why people so easily accepted and believed
what they read and heard.

The
last few months have been very stressful for a lot of people, especially in
regards to the contentious United States presidential election that we just
went through. There was plenty of rhetoric to go around from both (all) sides
of the electoral ticket. Between nonstop television advertisements and various
political canvassers calling several times a day, every day, to encourage us to
vote for their candidate, there was hardly a moment of quiet to collect our
thoughts. It didn’t even stop when the election was over.

These
days, a lot more people get news and other social information from the Internet
compared to television or even newspapers. As most of us have experienced, once
we are on-line it is like being sucked into a stimulation vortex. Video links
automatically begin to play and pop-up advertisements for consumer products or
holiday gifts flash across the screen—tailored to each user’s specific
interests, no less. It is natural to seek sources of information or
entertainment that resonate with our own beliefs and ethics/morals, so any
“facts” that we read or hear are more readily believed and accepted because we want
them to be true. If you don’t believe this, consider how often you change the
television channel if you don’t like what a reporter is saying, or abruptly end
conversation or on-line chat exchange if the other person challenges your
beliefs. Such discord is painful to the subconscious mind. When we are on the
Internet, it is much easier to simply tune in to someone or somewhere else that
supports our view-point. Furthermore, the more emotionally and
cognitively/intellectually invested we are in the subject, the more likely we
are to react and respond to this information; the more we react and respond to
it, the more invested we become. Of course, people who work in
advertising/marketing and dissemination of information are very aware how this
process works and possess the skills to draw our attention where they want it
to go.

Fortunately,
the fake-news schemes have been exposed and executives of the sites that
allegedly participated in them are taking steps to correct the programs that
allowed these transgressions to occur in the first place. But this experience
has understandably left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths: We trusted
‘X’ to tell us the truth! They lied to us/I believed what they said! What does
that say about me?

As
I explained in my blog titled Time Flies When
I’m On-Line, it is very easy to become overloaded by sensory
stimuli while we are on the Internet or even watching television and drift into
a state of trance (hyper-suggestibility). Here are a few suggestions to prevent
this from happening:

·Regularly count yourself out of the
trance state by saying, “One, two, three, four, five, eyes open [say your
name], wide awake.” This mantra will help you immediately return to an alert
and less suggestible state of awareness.

·Get in the habit of walking away from
the computer, put down the hand-held device or turn off/change the channel on
the television or radio and do something different for a little while. Take
this time while you are off-line to think critically about what you have read
or heard. Does it make sense to you? Consider possible flaws in that original
argument. If necessary, give yourself permission to imagine there are other
possible explanations and imagine what an alternative scenario might be. How
does that picture feel to you?

·Have a nutritious snack that includes
some protein to stabilize your
blood-sugar level and thus minimize potential irritability,
frustration and over-reaction to what is going on around you. This step will help
you remain more objective and patient to listen to and even consider opposite
points of view as you come to your own decision about what you have heard, seen
or read.

·Remember, you are most
suggestible to yourself. If you (your conscious mind) don’t like or do not feel
comfortable with the information you are hearing and/or the way you are behaving,
decide to make a change. That change may simply be to log-off the computer,
change the channel/switch off the TV or radio, or learning how to relax and
think/evaluate situations around you more critically rather than automatically
react to them. Hypnotherapy is great for that, too.